The List: What to Do This Week

This past weekend was scheduled to the minute, with Jonah's Pie Contest (he entered a grapefruit pie), brunch with friends, and Cinco de Mayo parties. And this week isn't any lighter, with plans every night after work and through the weekend. But instead of feeling exhausted and overwhelmed this morning, I felt invigorated and ready to take on the week—giving myself a few "free" hours on Sunday night to do some light meal planning and chill with some shows and a newspaper made all the difference. It served as a necessary reminder that scheduling time to just "be" can be just as important as all the other things. Here's what I'm up to this week:

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On Wednesday, I'm attending a sound bath collaboration between the artist Jonsi, and Alex Somers and Paul Corley in Olafur Eliasson's exhibit Reality projectorat the Theater Gallery of the Marciano Art Foundation. Since Jonsi's music already feels like a calming sound bath, I'm looking forward to what should be a natural partnership. If tickets are sold out (and they will sell out fast), you can still see the light exhibit through August.

Yesterday's issue of New York Times Magazine read more like a classic comic book than a magazine—with stories of people who have made money illegally, like those who have benefited from the opioid crisis [bang!], a man who cracked the lottery [boom!], and a guide to white collar crimes [ka-pow!]. My favorite piece was on the unlikely story of a baby formula crime ring. Read the full story here.

One of my favorite booths at this weekend's pie contest was a cookbook swap. The options on the table were mostly hilarious and/or useless (I will likely never hand-make my own cat food, for one thing), but there were a few diamonds in the rough like Sarah Britton's Naturally Nourished. It feels like a lifetime since I met Sarah at my last job, where she taught the food editors to make Dandelion Greens with Ghee-Poached Radishes, so I almost didn't recognize her name. But as soon as I picked up the cookbook, I was reminded of the fantastic recipes in her blog, My New Roots. The best part of the cookbooks, are the "rollover tips," or leftover ingredients from one recipe you can use on another. It's exactly my favorite way to meal plan, though I hadn't put a name to it. Last night, I made her Run Wild Summer Rolls, with enough extra Radish-Cilantro Salsa to top garlicky beans and rice for lunch today, and bonus Almond Butter Dipping Sauce for a nutty udon dish later in the week. With Sarah's simple planning, the ingredients I purchased on Sunday should last me through Friday!

This weekend, I finally caught up on all the shows I've been meaning to watch but haven't gotten to—the premiere of West World (ah!), Emily's recent favorite, the Avett Brothers documentary (I'm in love with both of them), and a recommendation from some of our eds: Sherlock. I think I'd been assuming Sherlock would be a period piece, along the lines of Peaky Blinders, but it is definitely not that—each episode, set in contemporary London, is almost the length of a movie and has so many hooks and twists you'll want to start Episode 2 as soon as you finish the first. It's the perfect show to binge-watch on a lazy Sunday.

Since getting into the habit of going on daily walks, I've also started to be more mindful of what I'm listening to on those walks. Often, I meditate with Headspace, but other times I just want to listen to a podcast. Since many of the podcasts I subscribe to are news- or true crime-related (read: very stressful), I began to search for a podcast that felt both nurturing and thought-provoking (minus the racing heart) and landed on Krista Tippett's podcast, On Being. Each episode addresses the overall theme, "What does it mean to be human?" from what dying has to do with living to how to consider life as a poem.

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